Cool Jazz

Cool Contrasted with Bop

• Relaxed tempos
• Subtle instrumental colors
• Emotional detachment
• Understated playing style

Cool Playing Style

• Conservatory trained musicians
• Orchestral conception
• Expanded forms and solo space
• Delicate attacks/little to no vibrato
• Middle register playing

Cool Ensembles

• Larger groups
• Emphasis on tonal color
• Harmonic possibilites
• "Jazz chamber music"

New Instruments Featured

• Bowed string instruments - cello/violin
• Orchestral woodwinds - flute/oboe
• Additional brass - flugelhorn/french horn
• Darker/warmer sound
• Tuba returns with melody

Third Stream music

• Term coined by Gunther Schuller
• Blending "classical" and jazz sounds/styles
• George Gershwin was early figure
• Cool jazz led this direction
• Public reaction was mixed

Woody Herman

• Cool style bandleader
• Clarinetist
• Featured 3 tenor and 1 bari sax
• Called "Four Brothers" sound
• Brought independent musicians into cohesive group

Gil Evans/Miles Davis

• Subtle arranging of Evans suited Davis
• Former members of Claude Thornhill Band
• Effectively highlighted Davis's talents
• Created "Birth of the Cool" sessions in 1949

Gerry Mulligan

• Popularize the sound of bari sax
• Played with Miles Davis, 
• Claude Thornhill, and Stan Kenton

Lennie Tristano

• Pianist
• Explored compositional alternative to bop
• Intellectual approach - influenced by Young/Wilson
• Formed "New School of Music" - taught Dave
• Brubeck, Art Pepper, Bill Evans

Bill Evans

• Pianist whose style influenced future generation
• Classically trained, explored third stream music
• Collaborated with Miles Davis
• Grammy award for "Conversations with Myself"
• Double and triple tracked his solos to create depth

West Coast Jazz

• Stylistically similar to cool
• Different audience and setting - racial divide
• Many players were former Kenton Band members
• Lighthouse at Hermosa Beach was center locale
• Intellectual, carefully orchestrated - Ellington legacy

West Coast Musicians

• Stan Getz, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne
• Dave Brubeck, Jimmy Giuffre
• Gerry Mulligan crosses coasts
• Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bill Holman

Third Stream

• Beginning in the 50s
• Artists use classical forms (i.e. fugue, etc.)
• Also playing precomposed classical piece in jazz style
• Modern Jazz Quartet - pivotal group between cool
• and third stream

The Brazilian Wave

• Jazz musicians were influenced by lighter samba
• Called "Bossa Nova"
• Suited to West Coast style - Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
• First of many Latin styles that will become mainstream jazz 
• Will blend with funky jazz, R&B, and soul

Latin Jazz Fusion artists

• Horace Silver - "Song for My Father"
• Mongo Santamaria - "Watermelon Man"
• Chick Corea will take it to next generation